A pair of Chinese porcelain blue and white, underglaze copper-red yanyan vases, Kangxi, 1662-1722. Photo courtesy of Marchant.
heightened in white slip, applied and painted with the eight horses of Mu Wang grazing, galloping and reclining in a continuous scene with rockwork, wuti and a large pine tree on a even pale celadon ground; 15 1/8th inches, 38.3 cm high.
Formerly in a private English collection.
A similar single vase was included by S. Marchant & Son in their Recent Acquisitions catalogue 2004, no. 30, p. 39; another, from The Umezawa Kinenkan Museum, is illustrated in Kogei No Bi, Special Exhibition Catalogue at The Osaka City Museum, 1990, no. 19, p. 13.
The eight horses of Mu Wang refer to a Zhou-dynasty story called Mu Tian Zi “The Heavenly son of Mu”, who had eight horses to pull his chariot.
Marchant. http://www.marchantasianart.com/